Just bought a new ipad with retina display. I want to be able to transfer photos (mostly NEFs) to the device using a card reader while on vacation (and then potentially to a dropbox folder). Will I be able to view these photos using the newest iOS Has anyone used anything like iPhotoRaw for viewing and transferring raw files

Ok Let me first say I love my ipad but it has things that will just outright annoy you.
I use my ipad(3) pretty heavily for images. And can say after 18months of solid use(I had an iPad 2 as well) that te iPad is NOT good for RAW .
You can view raw files but all the iPad is seeing is the embedded jpeg . I tried iphotoraw and it was just unusable. Really slow (I mean so slow that you just give up) and you could do 1 image at a time with no batch option. I will say I havnt looked at any updates so this may have been addressed (I still don't think it's going to be fast though).

Best image AP : iPhoto , but even so it will annoy the crap out of you . The need to create folders in the standard photos ap and then go into iPhoto is just silly .

Cons to using RAW:
Slow upload . Using the cam connection kit SD reader . If you have lots of raw files takes a while. But the cable to the body is even worse.

Space: the one reason I upgraded from my 32gb ipad2 to my iPad 3 was to get a 64gbmodel . And Eeven then its just too easy to fill with raw files. *see solutions below
Oh and I have noticed that if I delete lots of raw files I end up with lots of lost space . This I found could not be recovered without a wipe and reset of the iPad. Not the end of the world as you get back all your stuff but it takes ages.

Speed: I have a decent enough wifi connection and have used a few other wifi connections at friends/work etc. sending large files to Dropbox etc just takes too long. Much longer than if I was doing it from my PC on the same wifi.

Raw&jpeg : the cam connection kit will import BOTH files . And once in you can't seperate them *again soloutions below

A few solutions I've found:
(If you have an android phone that can take a micro SD ) I shot my files onto a micro SD from my 7D(the lates adapters are not as slow as they're were) . I shot raw & jpeg . I then had an app on my phone that let me cut/paste the raw files into a folder the iPad wouldn't see. This then went into the cam connection kit and the iPad just uploaded the jpegs . The raw files went onto my PC when I got home.

A wireless device called AIRSTASH . 2 great uses for photos + its a decent media streamer as well.
First . It's the ONLY device I've found that let's you send files FROM the iPad when not at a PC . So you can free up some space .
2nd if you shoot just raw it has the option to send just the embedded jpeg to the iPad . Works well but is slower . If I have lots of files I preferred the android phone option (although my phone died so I don't have that option now) .

Hope all that helps .
Best advice feed your iPad ONLY jpegs , they look wonderful on it .
I adjusted the settings on my camera so the jpeg suits the iPad (not huge changes) . These obviously don't affect the raw file but are cooked into the embedded jpeg.

Oh and if you want to get images you already have onto the iPad easily.
The cam connection kit should only work with files created in camera . You can't just copy loads of files onto an SD card and get the iPad to accept them.
But you can if you follow a couple of simple rules
1: the iPad is only looking for the DCIM folder . Use an SD that's been formatted in camera and this folder is present
2: file names. The iPad only sees images in a standard file name format. Look at the file names from your camera . I think it's 7 characters long. Keep your filenames like this and the iPad will see them .

workerdrone wrote:
I've been thinking about a retina ipad as well. For just display purposes (after PP work on computer), what is the best resolution for ipad jpgs?

Obviously I could crop and resize to the native resolution of the screen, but then I'd like to be able to zoom in as well and maintain detail on the images, so wondering what the recommendations are.

Not to hijack your thread but seemed a good fit

I havnt really done any comparisons as I tend to keep my full res (from my 7D) jpegs on there. I will say that I notice no difference between larg fine and a higher compression (smaller file) . Infact using the airstash I mentioned above that strips the jpeg from the raw gives me a smaller file than the higher compressed option of my 7D , and that's perfectly fine.
The embedded jpeg is usually about 2mb at the full 18mp .
If I wanted to feed my iPad smaller mp than the 18mp the 7Dproduces then I'd easily go down to 10mp and I doubt I'd notice .

wondering if anyone has knowledge of the pinch/zoom workings of the display - I'd be willing to export optimized ipad photos to a specific folder for this purpose (viewing at "100%" zoom with good detail), while keeping file sizes to a minimum for maximizing memory and app speed

Ok a bit of an Ooops .
Above I said there was no easy way on an iPad to seperate raw from jpeg when you shoot RAW+jpeg . Which is still true *
BUT there is a way that I forgot to get jpegs from your raw files quite quickly. iPhoto . When apple first did iPhoto they quite stupidly (well only to be expected from apple) stopped iPhoto from exporting more than 1 file to the camera roll folder in photos . (The help file even said it was possible at first, but rather than make it possible apple changed the help file :eyes
Well after a very long wait it became possible . So now you can import raw files and run them thru iPhoto and generate jpegs .
All iPhoto is doing is stripping the embedded jpeg from the raw file . But it's a decent option .

So just out of interest I thought I would time this method vs the AIRSTASH method I mentioned above.
I used 25 raw files generated by my 7D . ( I use a SD/cf adapter ) class 10 Samsung 32gb micro SD

Add in a a little time to navigate from 1 app to another plus a bit of time to delete the raw files (having to tap each file is a pain) . And I would say you can have those 25raw files converted to jpegs and in there own folder in about 6-7mins

AIRSTASH :
Send to camera roll (convert to jpeg) 7 mins
Add in a little bit of time to connect to the airstash network and set a couple of options in the app plus send the jpegs from the camera roll to their own folder and I would say total time would be about 8-9 mins .
Slower but I can start the import and close the smart case of my iPad and it can do the import while its in my bag. Handy if I'm importing 100's of raw files .

And by the way I can export those jpegs back to the airstash wirelessly in 1min 40 secs .

Oh and Also I mentioned the iPad loosing space where RAW files were deleted before , but I thought I woukd check the current state of the iPad . I'm quite a heavy user on my iPad and have lots of things like magazines and apps stored on there. But I bought a 64gig pad for this reason. I don't store music and I have 1 HD film on my iPad at the moment, and just less than 2000 images ( not all from my DSLR) I was shocked to see I had 9gig free space .

1. I want to be able to transfer photos (mostly NEFs) to the device using a card reader.
Yes, you can definitely import NEFs to the iPad but when you view it, it normally shows a JPG preview of the RAW file and there is no way to tweak the RAW.

2. Will I be able to view these photos using the newest iOS?
Yes, you can view the photos as JPG previews and even work with them using the iPhoto app or any other photo editing app.

3. My recommendation:
The iPad is good for viewing the files as long as you're ok with editing or sending JPGs. If you shoot SOOC most of the time, the iPad is a great lightweight tool so you can share your photos quickly and efficiently. If you shoot RAW and require a lot of editing, the iPad isn't a such a great tool for that. iPhoto is pretty basic but it gets some of the basics of photo editing done. The pinch to zoom function works great on the iPad and is useful for viewing but the lack of a precise drawing tool (stylus), you will be limited to what can be edited and what cannot be edited.

Hopefully my question is germane to this discussion. I have avoided Apple products up until now.
I am seriously considering the Retina iPad. I noticed that photos seem to map pixel-for-pixel
onto the iPad display, which is good as far as I'm concerned. A 1200x800 jpg file displayed on
this FM site takes 1200x800 Retina pixels. This, of course, means that the images is pretty
small on the display, but there is always pinch zoom, and at least the display system is
not automatically up-scaling web pages.

But on the MacBook Pro Retina models the web browser or monitor drivers (which is it?) up-scale
web pages so they fill the screen like users are used to seeing on older computers. I haven't
found a way to disable this. It's a deal breaker for me. A shame, since I considered a
Mac Book Pro.

Am I missing something obvious? Images displayed on websites such as FM look lousy
on the MB Pro Retina. I am sure native large images displayed in Aperture or what have you
are stunning.

Thanks,
I read through some of that earlier and the gist of it is that the main comment poster
is arguing that Apple has taken the right approach with the MBP Retina models.

I am not convinced, since essentially web images are being viewed at 200% now, and
they don't look good. Maybe their up-sizing algorithm is not good enough, or a good
enough algorithm would run too slowly on Safari.

As I can see it now, there is no setting you can tweak to ensure that all web images are
displayed 1:1 pixel for pixel [which certainly would produce really small-looking content,
but at least the images would look sharp.] This is something Apple should have allowed
as a preference setting.

trumpet_guy wrote:
As I can see it now, there is no setting you can tweak to ensure that all web images are
displayed 1:1 pixel for pixel [which certainly would produce really small-looking content,
but at least the images would look sharp.] This is something Apple should have allowed
as a preference setting.

I think that's true, given the consensus in that blog that the Retina MBP's are not suitable for web developers, since they can't easily see what their websites will look like to anyone without a Retina display.

I'm thinking of picking up an iPad 3 in the first quarter of 2013, and I'm wondering if I'm going to be disappointed using it to surf the web (including FM), although that blog also suggests the issue isn't as pronounced on the iPads, plus you can zoom with a pinch.

workerdrone wrote:
I've been thinking about a retina ipad as well. For just display purposes (after PP work on computer), what is the best resolution for ipad jpgs?

Obviously I could crop and resize to the native resolution of the screen, but then I'd like to be able to zoom in as well and maintain detail on the images, so wondering what the recommendations are.

Not to hijack your thread but seemed a good fit

I have a D800 and haven't tested it yet, but I did load up my iPad3 with Retina with several photos I have taken with my D700. They were all full rez jpgs, with somewhat light compression in PS (I think probably around a jpg slider setting of 8). They look REALLY REALLY nice for display on my iPad. People are very impressed when they see the iPad displaying these photos. And, people can pinch zoom a bit and they still look great.

I'm definitely looking forward to trying the same with my D800 files. However, the jpgs from it are so large after lightroom/ps work that I think they'll take up too much room. So, I may try some fullsize versions and some versions resized to around D700 size and compare to see if they look any different when viewing (obviously, both output sizes are larger than the iPad's native resolution of 2048x1536).

You will be very happy with the iPad for display purposes. I can't speak to how it works for raw files as I usually bring a small laptop with me on trips anyway, so I use that.